Meet the chef with Michelin cred who runs the kitchen at Healdsburg’s Jordan Winery
Healdsburg’s Jordan Vineyard & Winery is among the royalty of Sonoma wine producers, with a French-style chateau nestled among 1,200 wild acres and vineyards that produce award-winning chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon. And last year, it bagged a chef worthy of its reputation: Jesse Mallgren, who for nearly 25 years ran the one Michelin-starred kitchen at Healdsburg’s Madrona Manor (now The Madrona hotel).
Mallgren started in the restaurant business as a mohawked teenager, he says, that “no one else would hire,” washing dishes before rising through the ranks to Michelin greatness. He left The Madrona seeking a better work-life balance for his family – that’s hard to accomplish when working 12-hour days, every day – and now runs the celebrated culinary programs at Jordan, which include elaborate picnics, Parisian-themed feasts and fall harvest lunches. All of these are available to the public by reservation, and they come with plentiful opportunities to sample Jordan’s wine and estate-grown olive oil.
Mallgren recently took the time to chat about what culinary events Jordan has planned this year, the joys of cooking in Sonoma and also shared a recipe for a springtime chilled green-garlic bisque.
Q: Was food a big deal for you growing up?
A: My mother is a very good cook. She is a professional storyteller – she researches stories that were passed down verbally, like old Native American or Russian tales. When she would delve into the story she was learning, she would get into (the cuisine aspect). We would eat lots of Russian food when she was learning Russian stories, for example. She was always experimenting on us.
Q: What’s your cooking philosophy?
A: I really want the flavors of the food to speak for themselves. It starts with what’s coming out of the garden, and then I want as few flavors as I can put on the dish to really highlight it but still make it really fun and exciting.
Q: What’s it like being a chef in Sonoma?
A: There are so many small farmers and artisans, and the weather here is perfect to grow. There are little pockets, so toward the ocean you can grow vegetables that like cooler weather, and there are hot places where you get beautiful full sun. And you can get great seafood — just a wide variety of amazing products.
Q: Do you enjoy foraging?
A: Whenever I go for a hike, I’m driving my wife crazy — I’m always running off the trail trying to find mushrooms. We do a lot of foraged mushrooms and stuff like that (at Jordan). And all the seaweeds off the California coast are edible, so that makes life easy. There are some really tasty ones – sea lettuce is nice, then there’s the Cat’s Tongue (Chondracanthus exasperatus) which has a really cool texture.
Q: Can you tell us about the picnic series you ran this year? (They’re coming back in spring 2025.)
A: People get little picnic baskets. This year we did pork rillettes with mustard, olives, cornichons and almonds. We did fresh peas from our garden with mozzarella for a salad, a garbanzo bean and radish salad and a smoked-sturgeon salad using Tsar Nicoulai caviar. All of these came in little jars that guests could open up.
Q: What do you have planned at Jordan for the rest of the year?
A: We’re doing harvest lunches around October which are really fun. Those are out on our terrace, and I haven’t written the menu yet, but last year we had tomato salad from the garden with fresh-grilled bread, and beef tenderloin with haricot verts, fingerling potatoes and beurre rouge. It’s kind of a classic French red-wine butter sauce, because this is a French chateau, and we always like to have a little bit of France in everything… Then in November we’re doing some yoga retreats up at Vista Point, which is the highest point on the property. We did some in the spring as well, and people loved it.
Details: Jordan Vineyard & Winery is open daily for tours and tastings by reservation at 1474 Alexander Valley Road, Healdsburg; jordanwinery.com.